A mayor speaks out

S.J. CAHN

It’s still the best local “state of the city/state/

chamber/district” speech I’ve heard.

Tod Ridgeway’s State of the City speech when he was Newport

Beach’s mayor in January 2002 wasn’t what these speeches often are:

tepid no-brainers that suggest nothing but sunshine’s on the horizon.

“Wealthier residents, particularly those that derive their

livelihoods from extra-regional sources like the stock market or

inheritance are increasingly hostile to future development,” Ridgeway

said that Thursday night. “Younger households seeking to live and

work in Newport Beach are forced out by economics.”

Ridgeway’s target was the controlled-growth Greenlight movement,

which at the time was led largely by longtime Newport residents and,

most involved in the city’s political scene thought, was driven at

the polls by older voters.

A core part of Ridgeway’s message: No new development means no new

housing and, as a result, rising prices that will keep younger

people, and younger families, out of Newport.

His statements quickly drew fire from Greenlighters, who’ve since

added younger members to their steering committee.

Ridgeway was setting up an unnecessary and nonexistent battle,

they argued.

I don’t know about that. There always seemed to be a certain truth

to the charge that those who already lived in Newport didn’t want

change, even change that would allow other people to follow in their

footsteps and move to town. Even if that wasn’t the group’s

intention, it was a result.

Ridgeway’s speech came at a fairly contentious moment. Tonight,

Mayor Steve Bromberg has his second chance to stir the political

drink when he presents his State of the City at the Speak Up Newport

Mayor’s Dinner.

And it’s coming at a fairly contentious moment, with the

Marinapark vote still fresh in the memory and the harbor-front

locale’s future still very much up in the air.

We’ll see where the debate is after tonight.

And a treasurer

does, too

A week ago, I had lunch with the Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club. They

weren’t trying to get me to join -- these service groups have

standards, after all, which I think journalists fall far short of. I

was there to listen to Costa Mesa resident and Orange County

Treasurer John Moorlach, who’s also in the early stages of running

for county supervisor in 2006.

At that point, Supervisor Jim Silva will be termed out of office.

Moorlach’s biggest competition at this point is Assemblyman Tom

Harman, who also is termed out of office. (There’s been talk of Silva

and Harman, both former Huntington Beach mayors, essentially swapping

positions, although the thorn in that plan is the possibility of

Harman’s wife, Dianne, running for her husband’s seat.)

Moorlach -- there’s no original way into this piece of information

-- famously predicted the county’s financial doom more than 10 years

ago, right before the county went bankrupt. Since then, he’s been the

county’s treasurer and tax collector, having replaced Bob Citron, who

was behind the county’s bad money plan.

Since then, he’s also continued to champion smart fiscal planning

and money management. (He could start by exempting all my county

taxes, the smartest bit of management I can conceive.) And from the

sounds of his talk to the roomful of Kiwanis (is that Kiwani?

Kiwanises?), his run for a supervisor seat will continue that same

theme.

Now, John Moorlach is a heck of a lot more politically savvy than

I am (I may tell funnier jokes), and I’m sure his consultants, formal

and otherwise, are top-notch, but I think his message will have to be

more diversified than it’s been.

“It’s the finances, stupid,” he said at one point as he talked

about the rapid growth of county pension payments, the successes of

public employee unions and the loss of other tax revenue. (I won’t

even touch him paraphrasing a Bill Clinton line!)

At another point he told the crowd: “I could do a Power Point with

numbers that would scare you to death.”

Voters, of course, don’t want to be scared to death. We want our

babies kissed and our minds numbed with cloying platitudes.

To win, Moorlach will have to get such messages across, while also

giving us what we ought to hear about: the county’s financial future

and stability.

He’s still got plenty of time to add to his political portfolio.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He may be reached at (714)

966-4607 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.